Dragon Fire
by ValiasGryphon
Summary: A simple experiment by Vexen leaves poor Axel with more than he bargains for after somehow becomes something he's not. Will he be able to escape Vexen's experiment, or... will he like it a little to much and doesn't want a cure? Axel and Roxas friendship


Disclaimers: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of its characters. They belong to either Disney or Square-Enix

Warnings: Axel's potty mouth, TF fanfic (Transformation)

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"Whatja want now Vexen? Ya know I ain't you're personal assistant, you know. Why not go bother someone say Zexion or some other member?"

Vexen didn't even glanced up to see who had stepped through the door to his lab; he already knew who's fiery voice belong to. Instead, he was concentrating on pouring the right amount of a red powder into a heated liquid, without nasty results. "Ah yes, Axel. Good, you're just in time." the chilly academic said, waving a free hand to invite the pyro in. Axel complied, but cautiously approached. Vexen was well known to start experiments and forget them, resulting in... bad results. Poor Demyx was still recovering from such an ordeal, a week before resulting in coming out with bubble gum pink colored hair. Not that Marluxia didn't mind, he thought it was cute. So as Axel came up to the ice wielder, he stayed far away from any brewing experiments. "Soo... what do you want?" he asked again, trying to sound like he was in a hurry. "Oh... nothing much. Just need you to heat up a solution. The mixture needs to be at a certain temperature, and I can't reach that hot with my burners. Will you do the honors?" Axel sneered at the idea of become a Nobody burner. "What's in it for me?" Vexen merely blinked, "A chance to try a rare fruit that would otherwise poison a nobody for a long while." "Exactly how long?" "Two years, paralyzed from the waist down." "Great... I always did want to be the first member in a wheelchair.", The pyro said sarcastically. "Then I can cosplay Rufus Shinra for the next anime convention." Vexen merely rolled his eyes and prepared a phial.

Placing the phial on a metal holder, he placed it under a thin glass tube connected with various other liquids of various colors. He glanced at Axel, who rolled his eyes up and grumbled, placing a hand under the metal frame of the base bowl, setting his hand ablaze with extremely hot fire, but not hot enough to melt the glass. He heated the base bowl, and watched as the light blue color heated up and started to snake through one tube, joined up with a red liquid, then a yellow. By the time the finished heated liquid dripped down into the test tube phial, it looked a shade darker than pepto bismal. "Okay, I'm done here right? Yea, bye!" Axel said in a hurry after killing off his fire and turned to head for the exit. "Hold on Axel, I'm not done yet." Axel rolled his eyes. "What else do you need me to burn?" Vexen held the test tube in his hand, watching the steam rise from the liquid and slowly cooling it with his icy powers. "I want you to try this... and if by chance you do manage to get poisoned by the Bakafruit I can make up a antidote that will counteract the effects. Instead of going paralyze, think of it as that phenomenon where you're limbs tingle from lack of circulation of blood." "It's called 'falling asleep' genius. Fine... at least I won't have to worry about any missions any time soon." Axel groaned and waltz back to Vexen.

Something told Axel, deep in his gut that something was wrong, that he shouldn't approach Vexen and continued being his guinea pig for the day. His stomach was doing a few twisting about and setting itself in tight knots. "Vex... are you absolutely, positively, no doubt about it SURE this stuff is safe? 'Cuz if something bad happens, like me losing my fire power... I'm nailing your ass to the wall and then strangling your throat with your own steamy entrails!" Vexen's eyes momentarily widened before relaxing, thinking that Axel was making an empty threat. He usually did. "Right... here." He said and handed Axel the pepto bismal colored liquid. The pyro eyed the contents and even gave it a experimental sniff. It smelt of something dead and half rotten under the sun. "Glah! Vexen, this reeks of road kill! I'm not drinking something that died on the side of a highway..." Vexen crossed his arms and scowled. "Oh hush up! I could say the same about your sleeping quarters..." Axel growled and gave Vexen the Chocobo. "Oh shut up, Barbie doll reject! It's my bedroom and if I want to burn Dragon's Blood incense ALL day long, I can. If not, so help me KINGDOM HEARTS I will demolish whatever means of breathing out of the protestor!" A cough escaped from Vexen and looked away. He was not at all amused with Axel's threats. That's all the pyro was throwing of recent, hollow, meaningless threats. "Do I have to get Xemnas in here?" With a surrendering groan, Axel shrugged his shoulders. "Fine, fine... whatever snow cone... you didn't have to bring the Superior into this. Just... I've got a bad gut feeling about this. Funny, eh? Since we technically can't feel." A small smirk rose on the scientist's face, but it was hardly noticeable as Axel clenched his nose, closing his eyes shut while tilting his head back and swallowing the contents.

Once it was down his throat, did Axel returned to looking at Vexen but not before licking the roof of his mouth as if a wad of peanut butter was stuck there. "That stuff's thick man. Tastes funny, can't say what it tastes like but sure is different." He paused and cupped a hand, breathing hard into and sniffed to check his breath. "Hmm, nope. No road kill smell. That's a plus." He brushed his tongue against the roof of his mouth, tasting the odd taste that still clung. Before he could snap out of his daze, Vexen removed from his personal fridge a strange reddish fruit with purple ends. It looked like a cross breed of a pineapple minus the leaves, with the size of a grapefruit. The scientist sliced it in half, revealing a strange kiwi colored flesh of the fruit. "And I'm suppose to eat that?" Axel said, one eye half closed in 'disgust' at the strange fruit. "Yes, if it bothers you that much, I'll cut you a tiny piece.." He then took the knife and slice a small cube no bigger than a sugar cube out and motioned for Axel to take it. The pyro eyed the cut fruit, it almost jiggled like jello... gross. "Are you SURE this is gonna work Vexen? Because... like I said I'll.." "You'll kill me. I know, I know. You say those bluffs so many times..." Axel bit the tip of his tongue, taking a deep breath and held up the cube. All or nothing eh? Maybe Roxas would take 'pity' on his soul and go steal a Phoenix Down from that Cloud guy. Shutting his eyes, Axel popped the cube into his mouth, and chewed slowly. The taste was sweet, like fruity sweet mixed with honey. It was easily swallowed, with the same texture as watermelon. Once his throat bobbed to indicate swallowing the chunk, he waited silently. His eyes opened and stared down at his stomach, waiting to sense his legs go numb and collapse to the floor and never walk again for two years. A minute clocked by, then five minutes... ten minutes. After fifteen minutes passed by, Axel flexed a knee. No pain, no nothing. "Hey, Vexen! You did something right for once! It worked! The stuffed actually worked for once!" Vexen breathed out, and began to write down the formula. "That's good to hear. Now I'll just write the process down and then you can go back on your way." "Vexen..." The scientist glanced up, seeing Axel's face go from 'relief' to 'sickening' all the while grasping his stomach. "Something's wrong... I think I'm going to throw up..." In some act of trying to relieve himself of the stomach twist, Axel pulled out a bag of Red Hots candies and popped a handful in his mouth, devouring them in a minute. "Okay... I should be better... right?" He asked, but then his knees buckled in and he fell to the floor with a yelp, a hand placed on his forehead as an incredible pain rippled through his body.

"Axel? Something wrong?" Vexen calmly asked, somehow come to believe that Axel was pulling a prank. But this was no prank coming from Axel's point of view. "No shit Vexen!" His left hand trailed into his hair, fingers searching for the source of pain in his head, and it was growing all the worse. He continued to search, all the while jaw clenched tight from the pain, until his fingers rested upon a bump not far from his hair line on his forehead. It swelled and he gasped in pain, it pushing harder. "What the crap!?" He brought up his other hand, finding another bump on the other side, in line with the first. He cringed, hearing something in his head. The sound of bone crunching, yes... his own skull was giving way to something. He cried out once when the pressure of both bumps exploded and groaned through his throat. Once the pain had settled, Axel brought his hands back up to inspect what had to be the worst 'splitting headache' Axel had ever encountered. However, he never expected to find in that fiery mane of hair. Fingers shook in disbelief as they touched a pair of hard, bone-like spikes, no bigger than the length of his thumb with the same thickness. He pushed down, feeling where the skin had broken to allow these growths of... somethings to sprout from his head. "Oh... my... Kingdom Hearts... SOMETHING'S GROWING FROM MY HEAD!" He stood up and placed his hands over the small nubs, and pulled at them as if trying to dislodge them but to his dismay, were growing straight from his skull bone. Vexen approached slowly, still thinking this is all a prank. "Axel, knock it off. Your pranks are getting old." "THIS IS NO FRIGGIN' PRANK!" The pyro managed to part some of his hair to reveal the new growths. Vexen leaned in to inspect, only to shrink back. "You! You have... have." "Have WHAT!?" Axel demanded in a 'panicked' voice. "Horns.. gold horns!" With a face of shear nonexistent terror, Axel ran over to where Vexen kept a wall mirror mainly for... eh heh, checking himself out in between experimentations. Once the pyro got a glimpse of the tiny one inch horns, he bit his tongue with wide eyes. "What the hell Vexen! You messed up again! How am I going to get rid of these damn things!?" Just as he finished complaining, he winced in pain again, and felt the horns start to grow longer and larger. "VEXEN, QUICK! MAKE AN ANTIDOTE THESE THINGS ARE GROWING!"

Just Vexen went to find his tool box and look for a saw, Axel glanced at the mirror, seeing the gold tips of the horns poke through his red hair. "Um... okay... I can live with this. Yeah... it'll be like getting a hair cut right? 'Cept it's chopping two unnecessary horns off my head with a saw. Um... Vexen, when was the last time you used that saw of yours?" Vexen returned, holding a hand saw that had seemed to of rusted due to the moist air in the room, despite being colder than all the other rooms in the castle. "It's been awhile, but I can manage." Axel swallowed dryly. "You cut off my hair or skin, and I'll beat you to ya bleed. I want these gone, nothing else!" Vexen shrugged. "Okay, okay. I won't snip off your oh so 'lovely' spiky mess of a head. Now, if you just tilt it just so, it'll make it easier to saw off." With a low grumble, Axel did as he was told and leaned over slightly for the blonde to get a good angle at removing most of the horns off. Still, even as he stood still, the pyro could sense something wrong with him still. His mouth somehow, was starting to go numb and he flicked his tongue about inside, trying to figure out what was causing the numbness. But then, a small flick of pain ebbed inside and he groaned harsher. "What is it now? I haven't even started!" Vexen said, trying to sound as if he was pouting. If those horns were of a substance similar to that of pure gold, oh think of the munny he could make off them. And since Axel was right about them growing, he would continue to be perhaps the richest Nobody ever. Slowly, Axel leaned back up, and appeared as though he really was going to lose his lunch. Instead, as he opened his mouth and gagged, his tongue rolled out longer, thinner, and forked at the end. "What in the name of Jenova!?" Vexen said almost dropping his saw. Axel's tongue wasn't the only thing that changed. Every single tooth in his mouth had become sharpened, jagged even. His canine teeth had lengthen to sharp piercing fangs. Axel glanced down, wiggling his elongated tongue up, able to touch the top of his nose bridge. "Thus ish na cool maan." He tried to say with that tongue sticking out, wiggling in front of his eyes like a snake charming the snake charmer.

"Hmm… it would seem the mixture and fruit combined has formed some sort of catalyst to conduct some sort of metamorphosis to your body, rendering you inconsequently to accept the changes until the serum dissipates or the metamorphosis is complete in order to revert back to your former self." Axel looked at Vexen as if his head was about to explode, because surely that was about to happen to poor Axel's head. "Say that in common English Vexen!" He shouted after sliding his tongue back into his mouth, surprise to see it still fit after becoming almost a foot long. Vexen gave Axel an odd look, sighed while rolling his eyes and said in a more, nonscientific manner. "In other words, somehow the fruit and serum I made is turning you into something. I don't know what it is, but it's not good." Axel's eyes widen and he appeared to be pouting. "Then change me back!" "I can't… we would have to wait until your changes are complete before changing you back. Doing so in the middle of the change could warp your body's DNA and pretty much… no more Axel." Axel growled under his breath, the last thing he wanted to end up as was something so ugly, so monstrous it could scare the day lights out of poor Roxas and Demyx. "So you mean... no Axel as in... poof?" "No... no Axel as in this horrendous mess over my floor." Vexen correctly stalely. The pyro rolled his emerald eyes, "Nice.. I love you too Vexen. Let's do lunch sometime... and I'll get you a box of chocolates too." Axel was just about too rub the back of his neck, as it was begining to sore from held at a odd angle for a long time. Just as his hand breezed over the nape of his neck, each finger zinged painfully and he gasped, recoiling them into a fist and bringing it forward. His hand uncontrollably trembled and the tips of his gloves began to budged until the seems were virtually ripping bit by bit. In no time, each finger sleeve exploded into tattered bits, giving way curved, crescent shaped black claws. They were like eagle claws, curved, sharp and ready to slice into warm flesh with one swipe. "Vexeeeennnnnnn!!!!!! It's happening again!" Axel cried out as his other hand soon followed, and produced claws of their own.

Axel suddenly grew dizzy and collasped to the floor, his claws clacking lightly as he landed on his hands and knees. He gasped in hard, harsh breaths as if someone was choking the life out of him. Something... was burning him, far worst than the heat of a flame. This was not fire, but something more, deep under his skin, twisting, turning. Things disappeared, while new things emerged to take over. Organs slowly and painfully started to rearrange themselves, slowly every so slowly. It was enough to cause emense pain with every breath Axel took into his chest. "Ve.. VEXEN! I... oh gah! IT HURTS! VEXEEEEEENNNNN!!!" His ribcage started to expand, rippling pain like a hard knuckle sandwich. Wiether Axel liked it or not, he could hear the crunching sound of his ribs as they began to space out more, and slowly losing that human look to a more quadrupeded shape formation. He managed to glance up at Vexen, who instead of doing any sort of aid, plainly stood from afar and was joting down notes of this whole ordeal. "Vexen what are you doing!?" The man looked up from his notes and stared down into Axel's emerald eyes... with slit pupils than round ones. "I'm writing down observations so I can create a cure stupid." The pyro tried to swallow dryly but could not get his throat to bob down. "Damn you..." He muttered under his breath, only to cry out as his horns grew out to their full lenght of just over a foot long and two inches thick at the base. Axel finally fell to his left side, clutching his chest in heavy heaves, his clawed fingers touching over the area of his morphed ribcage. It would seem that the process had jump started and instead of small bursts of change, the metamorphosis decided to get it all done and over with. Skin stretched, expanded... all the while turning to a smooth tarnish gold tan color, and hardening to a leathery skin. The skin under Axel's chin, trailing down his neck and down his chest to his thighs became a pale, creamy white, and harden as did the rest of his skin, losing that silky touch. A horrible pain ripped down his spine, the worst between his shoulder blades and the base of his spine. Axel screamed the best he could in the wave of pain, but his voice changed. It started as a normal human male scream, but soon changed to something sounding like a cat yowl, bear growl, and alligator bellow. New bone growth started to appear in the two areas, and slowly started to budge into small hills of skin, two on his back, one on the base of his spine. The one at his base was the worst and first to go.

The pyro's black pants was forced to give way, the sound of fabric ripping in one large push, and his cloak was threaten to go next. He quivered at the sound of flesh and muscle stretching and new bone growing into place. It continued to push through, luckily the cloak was spared as a long tanish gold tail snaked its way from under the leather cloak skirt. With a hard gasp, he arched upwards, while one hand tucked under the cloak and held onto the base of the tail. It twitched about as if it had a mind of its own, still growing out longer and longer. With one eye managing to open slightly, he turned to gaze at the new apendage, watching it uncontrollably twitch about as it continued to still lengthen. In a way, it fasinated Axel and he tried to control it. At first, he couldn't figure out exactly how to tell the tail how exactly it should move by his own accord, but within seconds he could sence where the new muscles were and forced his still pained body to freeze and become tensed. It worked and the tail frozed stiff. Reaching out with a clawed hand, that was growing out redish scales that had swollen into existance on his knuckles and hand, he grasped the tip of the tail and pulled it closer. It was so alien to him, as the tip twitched side to side like a worm. Just as Axel sucked in a shudder of a breath, that he noticed that his clothes were starting to grow tighter. Each breathe became more labored than the last, and the cloak and clothes were not allowing him movement. He tried to move an arm forth, but as he did the normally strong durable leather cloak bursted into strips as his arm had doubled in size, more muscular. "Shit. There goes another cloak." He muttered under a labored breath, remembering of losing his first cloak that wasn't fire proof after discovering he was a pyro so long ago.

That's when, something... or more like thousands of somethings, crawled on the back of his neck like a million ants. Out of impulse, Axel's now freed arm swung over to scratch away at the 'ants' with his new claws, but found out something else. He felt small strands of hair poking through his skin, growing to almost three inches long. It grew from his own wild red mane and down the back of his neck in a thick single line. But it did not stop there, as it continued to run a track of red flaming hair down his spine. He cringed, bitting down on his new sharp teeth hard as the trail of mane grew on his lower back and started to make its way on the top of his tail. The hair continued to spread down on the top of the tail, until it started to shorten and finally stopping altogether just a foot away from the end of his tail, which had added black bands on the skin to fill in where the hair had stopped. When it all finally stopped growing, the hair was still smushed against the ever tightening cloak, and actually started to itch on Axel's leatherly skin. "Nnnn!" He moaned in protest, arching his shoulders upward as the mane strip continued to itched horribly. Or was that the two neglected bumps? Axel gasped in sharply, sencing them starting to push and pulsate, as if a new set of hands were protesting at the leather cages, living and well worn. The skin was easier to mold, though it caused Axel to hiss in pain and the hiss was very reptilian like. His cloak was tougher to break through, as the bumps pushed up against it, and started to spread and change under the black leather.

Something in Axel's mind told him to flex his back forward, despite the pain. He couldn't argue as he silently did as he was mentally told, listening to his cloak ripping two long tears and exposing his shoulders. Growing on each side, was a small wing, no bigger than a chicken wing and surprising the same shape as chicken wings, as they flailed about madly after becoming free, still amist the pain. With each effortlessly flap, they grew bigger, inch by inch. Suddenly, there was a flicker of color poking out of the naked winglets. Red... and it started to branch out in dots, then small odd shapes.. until flight feathers started to appear. But Axel was no where complete... his wings were merely a foot and a half long each now, and he was gaining height very quickly. His boots were starting to swell, and he cried out as the pressure intensived, finally bursting out to reveil his feet morphed to three toed, dinosaur like feet. Redish scales covered each digit and up the top of his foot until it reached the joint at his ankles, which was stretching longer until they were reverse jointed. Axel's cloak could no long take the strain of the pressure of his body growing beyond his normal size, and exploded into large ribbons of leather. His tail twisted insanely, and wings continued to beat hard, as if trying to take off as more and more red feathers grew out to cover most of where they were needed, and unlike normal bird wings, the feathers did not cover them completely. They seemed to be growing faster than Axel was, and soon were as long as him. The wings weighed down heavily, despite looking light, causing Axel to nearly fall on all fours. He could hear his body continue to expand, down to every crunch of bone and muscle.

In fact, he could hear alot, from the scribbling of Vexen's pencial on the paper, which he hadn't heard in quite such detail... to Demyx clowning around down in his swimming pool. Whoa! Wait a minute... Demyx's indoor swimming pool was six levels down from Vexen's labratory, yet Axel could hear the water weilder laughing and playing around, splashing water as if he was in the next room over. How could he be able to hear that from so far away and behind so many closed doors? He pulled a hand up to his ears, and frozed solid when his fingers brushed against his right ear, stretching. It felt like Xigbar's pointed elf-like ears, but these kept on growing, becoming much larger. A pulse of pain caused him to wence, and his hand felt that ear suddenly be able to flatten against his head. That normally didn't happen... So Axel placed his hand down and attempted to walking on all fours towards Vexen's mirror. He didn't get very far, but managed to see his head. His ears were long, narrow, and certainly not elf-like. In fact... they resembled... fox ears. Axel focused his hearing on Vexen's writing, watching as his right ear swirved towards the sound, while his left twisted forward. So he had complete control of his hearing range eh? Neat... but now was not the time to find out what he could do now. Something snapped and he fell to his right side, screaming in pain with that monsterious roar. His body continued to expand, in fact if he was to stand on his back legs, he would stand nine feet tall and clearing bump his head or in this case his horns on the ceiling. Still he was growing bigger. The snap that caused him to collasped was his own neck, parallzying him momentarily as it started to stretch out to match the length of his tail. All the while, his face started to break, bones snapping and regrowing back into place as Axel's nose, mouth and jaw started to pull out forward. Every tiny bone that broke and regrew back into a new place echoed in his skull, causing him to want to cry out. What did he ever do to deserve this treatment? Once the crunching sounds stopped, Axel opened his mouth slightly and finding it hard to believe it was now a long wedge shaped muzzle. His nostils were slightly large slits and his teeth had added extra pieces to fill in the gaps of such a large, and obiviously carnivorious jaw.

He winced a few more times, as his wings finally grew to a proper size, and lined with the brightest red feathers he had ever seen. They folded nicely onto his elongated back, and he attempted to stand up on his feet. He tried to get onto two legs, but found himself quite heavy. He glanced over to Vexen, who had dropped his clipboard and stared up at Axel in disbelif. Axel couldn't believe that Vexen was now the size of a two foot doll. He cast his veiw downward, at his hands, that were now hand-like paws, waiting for any more signs of pain that went with the changes. For a while, there was silence until Vexen slowly approached. "Axel... can you hear me? Is that still all you in there?" Axel's emerald cat eyes flashed down to the small figure, and his fox-like ears immediately swerved to focused on Vexen's voice. Was he still Axel, the pyro, the Flurry of Dancing Flames? "I think so... this is so weird..." He managed to say, at least his voice hadn't of changed. "In that case... Axel... I think I know what you are now... but I want to test something. Summon fire." "What's that got to do with anything? Pssh, fine." Axel turned his right hand paw over and concentrated on summoning his fire power. But nothing came, not even a single flicker. However, he could clearly see smoke rise from his nostrils as he tried to summon fire a second time, pushing harder this time. It started to choke him, and his cheeks bubbled up as he felt fire rise from within him! Smoke turned black as he squinted his eyes shut and shook his head about to stop the oncoming fireball in his throat. Seeing this, Vexen quickly summoned up a pillar of thick ice and pointed at it. "Aim for that! Not my experiments!" Axel opened his mouth to speak, but at once, fire exploded and melted the pillar of ice into a puddle of water. He stared down at it, wide eye. As he cast his gaze down, he could see his reflection in the icy water. He blinked and examined his face, muzzle, horns, everything. At least his hair was lefted intact. His black tattoos that were under his eyes had enlarge and stretched downward until the faint tips touched his rim of his jaw line. He experimented with his muzzle, opening it and closing, sticking his forked tongue out and raked it along his teeth. Curiousity filled him somehow and he raised a hand paw to his face, after craning his long neck downward. Touching his face to confirmed it, he glanced back at Vexen and released a terrible growl, lips parting to show those rows of teeth. "Change. Me. Back. NOW!" He shouted, mixing in that roar with his voice.

"You changed me into a freakin' DRAGON!"

Vexen backed away slowly. "Axel... control yourself! You're going to make things worse for the BOTH of us!" "I'll show you worse!" Axel snarled and stalked Vexen, sucking in breath in his massive lungs as he summoned up fire again. He swiped a hand paw at the man, snarling once more before releasing a surge of fire breath. Vexen quickly acted in time, summoning up his sheild and protecting himself from the fire's rage. Great, even Axel's fire had changed from normal fire, to the incredible and more powerful Dragon Fire. Axel roared, his black claws scratching the blue sheild's paint off. Vexen had to think fast before turning into Axel's first dragon snack. He looked around for anything to tame the beast in his lab, all the while praying his massive whip like tail and wings would not knock over and break the other experiments he had simmering. He picked himself up and ran... holding the sheild out to protect him, making it to the frige he kepted for cold storage. He glanced at it and opened it, spotting leftover lunch of Xaldin's baked chicken he had brought a few days ago when Vexen couldn't come to dinner. "Axel here!" He grabbed ahold of the cold food and slung it across the floor to Axel's feet. He knelt down and sniffed it with his nose. Even his sence of smell had increased... heck, he could compete with Zexion if he wanted to. Somehow.. his mind said to eat it, despite it being on the food. No five second rule here as Axel charged up a small breath of flame, cooking up the meat before snatching it in his jaws and gulping the whole thing down, bones and all.

Once the small morsel was down his throat, Axel seemed to calm down a bit. But then a low growl errupted from him. Well, actually... his stomach. "Hey Vexen... you got any more? I think I'm hungry... Man... yup, I am. Damnit, I could eat a whole Effing cow." Vexen dispersed his weapon in a plume of snow. Using his new tail as a counter balance, Axel sat down, and lifted himself up, so he could examine his new body. "Feh... you know... this... this isn't so bad actually. I think I could get use to this and...HOLY SHIT! I'M NAKED! WHERE'S MY.." "Axel calm down now! Yes, after shredding all your garments you are in a sence... nude, but only by human terms. And yes.. I am aware you don't have your... eh.. 'personal treasure' showing. More than likely, it's simply placed away in you now, instead of having out and wagging around. Heaven and hell forbid all of us have to put up with seeing you flash us while in that form." Rolling his eyes, Axel turned his head, making a wing spread open and reveil the feathers to him. "If I'm a dragon, then how come I have bird wings?" Vexen merely shrugged. "Prehaps a different race of dragon, how many races do you know?" Axel sighed. "Beats the shit out of me... never came across any dragons." He shook his wing a bit, watching the feathers ruffle a bit. "Heh, how would you love to stuff a pillow with these babies? With just one of them, you wouldn't need a broom anymore." Vexen silently thank Xaldin for leaving him that meal, as it seemed to be working and keeping Axel calm. But that wouldn't last long, one half of a chicken was like one bite off a cake... it wasn't filling enough and soon Axel would be even more hungry... and more than likely kick in a prey-drive, and hunt everyone down.

While he was busy checking out his hand paw's paw pads on his palms, Axel noticed something he didn't seem to realize till now. A hand paw reached down to the base of his neck, grasping onto a metal chain, with two dangles. The remains of his cloak. The chest chain latches must of caught onto the pull chain of his hood to form a dragon collar. It wasn't tight, but it was very much in a sence a choker necklace. "Great... I'm offically Vexen's pet. I 'feel' so degraded." The scientist rolled his eyes and picked up his clipboard and pencial. Holding out a hand, he summoned a very large portal. "Out." Axel glanced up. "Wha?" "I said out. I'll work on a cure, but your size is threatening to destroy everything else in this lab! OUT!" With a growl, Axel seemed to be refusing to go, but finally stood up and took Vexen's order. Dragon or no Dragon, Axel had to obey his higher rank. He stepped through the portal, only to end up on one of the roofs of the castle. "This sucks.." He mumbled and laid down, curling up on the roof floor. Resting his head on his crossed front legs, he watched the clouds roll over Dark City. It had started to rain earlier that 'day' and now the clouds had broke up, reveiling the stars above, no more rain for the evening. The cool wind from being so high blew, making Axel's mane and feathers ruffle. "Boring... I gotta get something to eat." He said to no one. The wind slowly picked up and his nostrils detected the faint scent of the black sea way over to Darkness Beach. "Seafood on the menu? I sappose I could put up with sushi until Vexen makes that antidote. But... how do I get down?" He craned his neck, looking at how far up he was. Too far up for his own taste. At least it wasn't the highest rooftop where Xemnas was currently observing Kingdom Hearts. Axel stood back up, and glanced behind him, flexing both wings. "It's worth a shot, but I know nothing about flying." He walked to the edge and flapped his wings. Nothing happened at first, but then he kept trying, flapping harder and harder. Suddenly Axel's chest started to lift and his front legs were hanging in the air as he continued to flap. He tried to lift one back leg up then the other. His tail was the last to stay on the floor, as if the only thing holding him down. He lifted it slowly until he was completely in the air, hovering. "Holy snickes!" he called out and forget to flap. He landed back down on the roof on all fours, with a loud thud. "Oww... that hurt." He grumbled, but smiled. He flew in the air, something he couldn't possible do as a human/nobody.

"What was that thud!?" Shouted a voice. Axel turned his head around, spying Luxord coming out from a door. He stopped mid stride and gazed at Axel. The two exchanged looks, and suddenly Luxord screamed like a little girl, running back inside screaming "DRAGON! DRAGON! THERE'S A BLOODY DRAGON ON THE ROOF!" Axel snickered once then realized who in the Organization was a bit of a 'wind-bag' towards the topic of dragons. Being Xaldin's pet didn't settle well with him, and Axel knew he had to escape. He focused his ears toward the door. At once he picked up on the footsteps of Luxord's, and Xaldin's. Axel snapped his head back towards the edge of the balcony. If he still had his heart, it would be racing now. If he jumped, he could go kersplat on the pavement below. But he had to take that chance. Pressing his wings tightly to his back, Axel backed up once then leaped over the edge. Tucking his legs against his underbelly, he slowly spread his wings out wide. The wind licked at his eyes, but he focused to keep them open. The ground was rushing at him quickly and he craned his neck upward, his body starting to aim upwards. As soon as it looked like he was starting to climb, Axel pumped his mighty wings, and started to gain lift. "Come on! Come on!" He coached himself, until he was reaching back to the height of where he had took-off. Luxord and Xaldin stood there wide eye as they watched the dragon fly even higher. "Ohhhh.. boy. Ain't the Superior going to get a nice surprise." Xaldin mumbled, turning high heel to see if he could reach Xemnas before Axel did.

Angling his wings now, Axel was now flying over the city, keeping his wings in a steady pace. "Wow... talk about breath taking." He said, watching the city pass below him. He continued to fly over the buildings, including passing by the Memory Skyscraper. His goal was Darkness Beach to try out his first hunt. Okay.. he had to admit it, being a dragon was cooler than setting himself on fire for kicks. His vision was so keen, he could focus on the street below and pinpoint a piece of paper, and actually read the contents. He could smell the ocean water long before it came into veiw and he could hear the distant sound of crashing waves. Soon with a few minutes of flight, Axel's back legs then front legs landed softly on the beach sands. He glanced around, seeing no one around and strolled on the beach, leaving behind giant foot prints in the sand. He reached the shoreline, and watched as the water kicked up on his front feet. Axel never did like swiming, and wasn't hundred percent sure there was anything in the black sea. Walking into the water until it touched his chest, he glanced around. Looking for fish was like looking for a needle in a haystack in the dark. So, he just guessed where one might be. Since his hand paws where busy holding him up, Axel figured why now his jaws? Sure, it's gonna taste salty, but that couldn't be helped. Sucking in breath and forcing his nostrils shut, Axel snapped into the water. When he pulled up, water poured from his exposed teeth like waterfalls. Nothing... wait. Something moved, darting around his mouth as the water dropped, then two... four... lots! Once all the water had drained, he had in his mouth a small school of sardines, and without double thinking, swallowed the whole lot. His hunger sudsided finally, for now.

Turning around, Axel started to exit the water, shaking his body to remove the water dripping off his leathery skin. When he opened his eyes, they met with a pair of blue ones, coming from a small blonde. "Roxas! I um... uh... I... can... explain!" Axel started to back away, not sure how Roxas would take to seeing him like this. How did the boy knew where he was? "How long have you been here?" Roxas's eyes gazed all over Axel, taking in his features. Removing his hood, he slowly approached Axel. "Axel? Is... is that you?" "The one and only... you can thank Vexen for this! When he makes an antidote, I'm so putting a chakram up where the sun and moon don't shine!" Roxas continued to approach and raised a hand up. Axel lowered his neck and head, and Roxas found himself stroking Axel's muzzle. "I've been here for an hour. Needed some Me time. When I saw you fly over.. and land. I hid... wasn't sure if you were a heartless or not." "Nope... just me... Axel. Got it memorized?" Roxas smiled and continued petting Axel's snout. "Perfectly... Axel?" "Hmm?" "Was it fun?" "What was fun?" He glanced up a emerald eye at Roxas. "Flying... was it fun?" A grin smirked over Axel's face. "Are you kidding me!? What? Are you asking for a ride?" Roxas went blank for a bit before Axel leaned forward suddenly, shifting his left shoulder down so Roxas could easily get on. "Hop on.. It's a breeze!" Roxas snapped out of his blank stare and without hesitating, climbed onto Axel's back. "Too bad you won't do this often Axel... might be a thrill." The pyro chuckled. "Yea... call it a one-time treat. Got it memorized?" Roxas noticed Axel's chain and grasped onto it, making a perfect handle to hold onto. "Ready partner?" Axel asked, looking back at Roxas. The boy nodded, and Axel spread his wings, flapping them until he could sence himself lifting off the ground.

Roxas held on for dear nonexistent life as Axel climbed higher into the sky, becoming a pro at this flying thing. Eventually, Roxas was comfortable and his grip on the chain lessen until he was confident enough to let go completely and held his arms out like wings as Axel's stretched out for a brief glide. "So buddy, where do you wanna go?" Roxas looked around the monsterous size of a city, and smirked. "How bout through the streets and climb up to the top of the skyscraper!" He called out, thinking Axel couldn't hear him with the wind. Quite the contrary. With a smirk, Axel folded his wings in, and spin downward, Roxas holding tight to the chain collar. When he reopened his wings, he flew a mere foot from the pavement, the tip of his wings almost hitting the light poles and buildings. So eventually, he allowed his legs to catch the ground and instead ran down the street as his wings tilted to slow him down. But suddenly he came to a hault, as black masses of pools started to surge into hundreds of heartless. Roxas held tightly to Axel as he backed up, only to find they were boxed in, with heartless all around. A growl errupted from deep in Axel's throat, and he enhaled a lungful of air in his nostrils. "Axel... what should we do? Fight?" There was no need for Axel to answer as he released a blast of fire from his jaws, burning away some of the heartless. "We fight!" He said and roared aloud, charging at the mass. Roxas summoned his keyblades and like the knight on his steed, chopped away Heartless that attacked while Axel charged through. Though it was disappointing to be unable to summon his chakrams, Axel had a good substitute; himself. His whip-like tail thrashed at a group of heartless while his fire breath burned through another. He oftened reared up to protect Roxas as his claws slashed away. Soon Axel gained enough speed, running towards the skyscraper. "Run, Axel, run!" Roxas cried out. Extending his claws out, Axel lept onto the side of the building and climbed up with the same speed, as heartless continued to chase them. Wings started to beat madly, and as soon as there was no more skyscraper to climb, the pyro dragon pushed himself off and took to the air once more. Glancing back, the two looked at one another and laughed. "Woo yah! That was a thrill! Did you see all those heartless get creamed! Axel, we are so a team at this... why couldn't you be a dragon all your life?" Axel thought this over and merely smiled as they climbed higher in the air. "Nah... wouldn't be the same. Besides... who ever heard of having a dragon nobody in the Organization. They see me more of a pet than anything else... and I won't take to 'kindly' if Xemnas wants to piggy-back ride. Sorry kid, but I think Axel perfers being Ole' Axel everyone knows and 'loves'." He chuckled, and paced his flight, heading back to the castle. Vexen by NOW should have an antidote ready. "Anything else before I change back?" Roxas thought long and hard, then motioned for Axel to turn his head around and have the boy whisper in his fox ear. He listened and laughed. A perfect plan.

Xemnas and Saix stood at the top roof, observing Kingdom Hearts as they usually did. Saix approached slowly, and stood beside Xemnas. "How long do you think it's near completion?" Xemnas was slow to respond, but responded none the less. "That... I do not know. But I can guarentee that it will be close. Oh, so very close." Saix nodded slowly, and kept his gaze up at the heart shaped moon. Just then two portals opened, and Xaldin and Luxord appeared in haste. "Superior! Oi! Superior!" Xemnas and Saix turned around to hear Luxord's blurts. "What is it now?" The Superior asked, calm and collective though it was clear he was in no 'happy' mood of being disturbed. "Sorry to bother your Superior, but it seems we have a bit of a problem on our hands." Xaldin spoke up. A eyebrow raised on Xemnas's face. "And that would be?" "Well... you... see evidently we've had a ... uninvited visitor... to our castle and well we wanted to let you know that a..." Xaldin didn't finish as Saix, for a first time.. had his eyes widen with a false expression of worry and prehaps a bit of fear. His right hand slowly lifted and pointed in front of him. "Dra...dra...dra..." "Dra what Saix?" Luxord turned around to see what Saix was pointing at and he too, went wide eyed and well.. panicked like the wuss he actually was. Meddling with a certain sitar player was starting to rub onto the British gambler. "DRAGON!" Xemnas turned his head, his vision catching the shape of a tanish bronze creature with red wings come flying at a high speed towards him. He started to freeze, then his feet started to back away slowly. Axel released a mightly roar, causing the four nobodies on the roof, including Xemnas to panic and try to seek shelther as the great beast decended. He landed on all fours with a loud thud, shaking his neck a bit as Roxas grinned wide. "Oi! What's the big idea Scaley!? You can't just fly in and claim whatever castle you want! I happen to know a good old fashion thing or two from merry old England how to slay you, foul beast!" When they saw Roxas, they all hung their jaws, except Xemnas... he was not that childish. "O Luxy, give that a rest will ya? You might be seeing things. Got it memorized?" Axel said with a wink. "AXEL!?!" They call out. "The one and only." Xemnas crossed his arms. "Explain... now!" Axel rolled his eyes and soon explained his ordeal with Vexen. Xaldin and Luxord exploded with laughter, while Saix and Xemnas looked like cold statues. "So.. is he working on the antidote?" Xemnas inquired. "Right here!" Vexen appeared from a portal, holding in his hand a large test tube with a steamy hot purple liquid. "Here it is, I've been looking all over for you Axel! You should of stayed put!" "Well you never said anything about staying! Besides.. I wanted to test these babies out." Axel protested and wiggled his wings about. "Oh? So you like being a dragon, fine.. I'll go throw this away and.." "Don't you dare, Snow cone! I'll roast you alive!" Axel snarled. He leaned down to let Roxas off, who was started to become disappointed. He and Axel's fun time was over. Vexen handed Axel the potion. "Drink all of it, or else it won't work." Without arguing, Axel smiled at Roxas. "Here's to our flight, it was great while it lasted." And so, he tilted his head back and swallowed the contents down.

A week went by, and things were normal once again in The Castle That Never Was. Axel was back to normal, and was busy listening to some music in his room. Demyx was flipping through one of his comics, and cranked the volume up. "Oh Geez Dem.. not 'My Sitar'. You damn addict." Axel chuckled. Demyx giggled. "I know. I'm good like that." There was a knock on the door and Demyx lowered the volume. "Who goes?" "It's me." Axel jumped off his desk chair and answered the door. "Hey Roxas, come on in. Me and Dems are flipping though my comic collection. Hellboy series... gotta love it!" Roxas smiled and entered. "Hey Demyx." Demyx waved and returned the volume high, but not too high since it seemed Roxas wanted to talk with Axel. "So, what's up little buddy?" Roxas shrugged. "I dunno... I'm bored I guess." Axel rubbed his chin, and sat back in his chair. "Huh? Really... what do you wanna do?" Roxas grumbled and bit his lip. "What do you think?" "Whacking heartless?" Axel replied. "Nah" "Pranking Luxord, Marluxia, and Larxene?" "No..." "Bug Xigbar to borrow the DDR pad he's got?" "I'm not interesting in gaming... it's more... thrilling. I miss that." Axel glanced at Demyx, who in turned glanced back. He had told Demyx of his ordeal a week ago, and Demyx had longed to see that, wishing he wasn't swiming like a flippin' fish all day out of boredom. "Yea.. I get it. Can't do anything about that.." Axel said, sounding as if he too was disappointed. "It was fun." Roxas nodded. "Well... I guess I could hang out with you and Demyx for now.. reading comics and listening to rock... whoopie." A witty smirk rosed on Axel and he strolled over to his private small balony window. "Hmm... it's a clear night isn't it. The breeze looks tempting." Roxas glanced up from staring down at the floor. "Huh? What are you talking about Axel?" The pyro glanced over his shoulder and smiled. "Tell me Roxas... do Vexen's experiments always come out right?" The younger blond thought it over. "No, not usually. Why? Axel... what are you trying to pull?" Demyx was also confused as to what Axel was trying to hint. "Aku... what's going on?" The pryo reached for his chest chain, unlatching it to one side. He then pulled down on his top zipper down to his stomach. Slowly, he reached up and grasped a hold of his cloak's shoulder and pulled downward, exposing his right back side of his shoulder. There... folded neatly and flat against his back to avoid detection through the cloak... was a foot long wing, with red feathers. "I won't do this often. But how both it? Guys night out?" Roxas's face lit up, so did Demyx's and nodded silently.

That night, Roxas and Demyx never 'felt' so alive then riding on the back of a dragon, who just happened to be the wild pyro wielder, Axel as the three headed to Darkness Beach for a little 'Trio Friend Time'.

- Fin -


End file.
